Arguably, 19th century literature is defined by the extravagance of its poetry. (The Vampire Lestat ain’t got nothing on Lord Byron.) But the craft of the novel was percolating in the background, too, undertaken by such undesirables as women, satirists, and social reformers. If you care to, you can find Victorian jeremiads railing against the social rot perpetrated by novels, which read like anti-television tracts from the first decades of that medium. (My take: give any genre long enough, and it’ll become preferable to the newest alternative. I am constantly begging my children to rot their brains with television instead of YouTube. For crying out loud, put on headphones at the very least.)

Because early novels were written on the edge of things—not precisely respectable, and new enough for wide experimentation—many bucked the often rigid social structures of the times. In the second edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which had been subject to much howling by moralists, Oscar Wilde declared, “all art is quite useless.” By which he meant (among other things) that the novel should not be used only as a moral punchline, but should explore the wide variety of the human experience. From Trollope’s intricate family sagas, to the Brontë sisters’ howling family Gothics, to the lurid and/or didactic serials of Conan-Doyle and Dickens, the novels of the era tread a lot of ground.

Maybe that’s why they’re such good fodder to update for a contemporary audience: they managed to hit first, and definitively, a swath of the human experience. No, no one has to worry about the entailed estates of the Regency period, but the social burlesque of Pride & Prejudice, the relationship between the sisters, and the sting of betrayal—all still hold true. (Plus, Darcy: rwrrr.)

Here are 12 sci-fi and fantasy updates of major 19th century novels. I’ve not included works that already have a science fictional or fantasy twist to them, like Dracula, Frankenstein, or The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; they almost need their own roundup. I haveincluded edge cases like the Gothics, because any supernatural element tends to be ambiguous at best. (Quick: are the ghosts real in The Turn of the Screw?) Come let’s see what’s happening on the manse, in space.

I know this is super annoying, but my actual list can be found at B&N SciFi. It was hella fun to write.

The Diabolical Miss Hyde was a fun read, if a little out there. My only strong complaints are that Lizzie's character was more unformed than I prefer <spoiler>her personality had a tendency to flip-flop depending on the moment & what was convenient</spoiler> and Eliza was occasionally stupid for such an intelligent women, in addition to being ridiculously suspicious of EVERYONE, except for those she should be of course. *bangs head on the desk*

Otherwise an intriguing enough book, the split in personality and love interest was certainly interesting <spoiler> especially with that psycho Mr Todd, boy is he insane! can't see how Eliza could possibly feel anything positive for him, though I do fancy the red hair</spoiler>. Wouldn't mind seeing where that went, and I did so enjoy the struggle between Lizze & Eliza & there odd affection for each other. So I might pick up the other books in the series at some time, but not for a while I don't think.

Oh and for some odd reason I couldn't get the idea of Hippocrates being bug shaped out of my head, they constantly referred to him as a dog, but based on the descriptions but brain kept referring to him as a bug, maybe a lady beetle? sadly we saw less and less of him as the book went on. Hopefully he'll be in the next one.

I was a pretty big fan when this movie first came out and couldn't understand why no one else seem to appreciate it. Tonight i watched it again and clearly understood. Australia i love you but you have some shitty actors, lol. << this i have always known, except for a few special people aussies' are not known for their acting skills, we tend to over dramatise it, plus the accent can be cringe-worthy. But even with all that held against it i still managed to tear up during the movie and now i realise why i loved it so much in the first place - it transfer's me back into the emotion when i was reading the books, in the movie you can't understand how difficult it was for Robin to pick up that gun and kill people, but in the books we get that loud and clear, that she had to not only sacrifice a big part of her belief, self values and morals but also a part of her soul to save her friends - i know how far she's willing to go for them as well (it is heartbreaking) and with Corrie, i know that she doesnt survive that gun shot, that her friends will never see her again, but the movie can't express all this, can't express the emotions the book beats you with until you can't handle anymore.But what it does is a rather fantastic job of putting me back into that frame of mind, to help me remember how i felt while reading, and thats its own kind of special. Still while i adore the actors, i kind of wish they had chosen better quality ones, so everyone who didnt read the books can realise how spectacular this story truly is.

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